This seminar explores the presidential transition initiated by the assassination of President Kennedy and how President Johnson responded in his first year in office in terms of policy and executive leadership. The seminar will cover Johnson’s first week in office and the flurry of actions he took to transition the government from his predecessor to his own, before he moved to shape policy in a number of key areas during his first year in office. The individual seminars are as follows:
- A Truncated Transition: From Dallas to Washington
- LBJ and the Civil Rights Act
- LBJ and Vietnam
- LBJ and Voting Right
- Stepping Down: Lessons from LBJ’s Withdrawal from the 1968 Race
- Discussion Leader: Saladin M. Ambar
- Historic Site: Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library
- Hotel: The University of Texas at Austin AT&T Hotel and Conference Center
Gather with a small group of teachers from around the country for three days immersed in discussion and exploration of a single topic in American history. Weekend Seminars are a free opportunity for teachers hosted near an important historical site. Teachers will prepare ahead of time for seminars by reading selected historical documents in the provided course packet. Once the seminar begins, the discussion leader guides a peer-to-peer, text-based conversation among all participants. Meals, materials, single-occupancy rooms, and historical site visits are 100% covered by Teaching American History. At the end of each course, every teacher receives a letter of participation for fifteen contact hours of continuing education and a stipend of $600 to help defray travel costs.